So much for Plan A , Plan B , or even Plan C …it appears as though the Blue Jays will be resorting to Plan D for shortstop next year.
Thanks to a reported one year deal worth approximately $1.5 million, John McDonald will return for one more season to wow fans with his defensive prowess at shortstop.
While the rumblings of this deal initially irked me, I fully understand the reasoning behind it. Instead of taking a chance right out of the gate with Mike McCoy or some other el-cheapo free agent signing, the club would rather have the stability (albeit his offensive shortcomings) of Johnny Mac stationed between second and third base.
Two months ago I would have been livid to find out that the Blue Jays were giving the starting shortstop position to John McDonald. The reasoning behind my disdain in that decision was having Johnny Mac on the team didn't move this team forward—it merely kept it at status quo.
Now that Alex Anthopoulos has announced the Blue Jays are "building", I understand that this move is to keep John McDonald as a placeholder until somebody else comes along. Whether that happens via a position player in a trade involving Roy Halladay, or if it means somebody from Las Vegas gets called up remains to be seen.
If anything, at least Johnny Mac will distract us from the on-field product with some of his defensive gems scattered throughout the 162-game schedule.
In the meantime, I don't see what all the fuss is about over giving a deserving player like John McDonald a starting job he has coveted for so long. $1.5 million dollars is chump change for McDonald to play 120+ games next year.
After all, the Blue Jays will be paying B.J. let Ryan almost seven times that kind of money in 2010 to work on his tan and try some experimental hair restoration products.
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